Reiki Help Blog :: Oasis Reiki Dojo

Last night in the monthly dojo (teaching hall) meeting I hold with Reiki practitioners I’ve trained, the subject of karma came up. Karma, like some other key words and teachings from the world’s wisdom traditions is misunderstood and bastardized.

Today we have ‘gurus’ and ‘pandits’ in every field, especially technology. Karma is mentioned on a popular bumper sticker, and used loosely in everyday conversation. It’s a complicated and complex subject.

I’ve found the following from one of the most respected Buddhist teachers dispensing dharma (look it up!) today, Pema Chödrön, to be very helpful. It avoids some of the more esoteric aspects of this involved teaching and presents a practical approach.

Please let me know how it has put things into perspective for you in comments below. (The bold sections are my highlighting.)

When something happens to us that we find really painful—an insult, a physical ailment, the loss of someone we love dearly—the Buddhist teachings train us to understand that we have just been given an opportunity to repay a karmic debt…The karmic understanding need not be religious nor an occasion for guilt. In fact, it can allow us to act without being guilt-ridden. Anything I cause someone else to feel, either pleasant or unpleasant, resulting from my words, actions, and activities, I myself will feel sooner or later. What goes around comes around. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it comes back in the same form, but somehow anything I’ve caused someone else to feel, I will feel at some point in the future. This system applies to good feelings as well, but my focus here is on the karmic repercussions that cause us to settle the score.

Therefore, when something unpleasant happens to me, I know it is a debt coming back. I have no idea what I did, so it’s not something I have to feel guilty about…I have no need to go into the history of how I got here. I just say, “I am feeling this.” At this point, I have a chance for the buck to stop here. This stimulus does not need to be the cause of evening the score in the usual pain-causing way.

Instead, at this point you can apply a meditation method that would circumvent the habitual score settling. Whatever practice you use, the point is to stay with the underlying uneasiness and lean into it. Connect with the natural openness of your mind. You can feel at this point that “this debt has just been paid.” At that point, there isn’t going to be any further debt to somebody else or to yourself, no further repercussions from this exchange except further awakening, further connecting with the natural openness and intelligence of mind, further connecting with warmth and loving-kindness toward yourself, further connecting with compassion and love for other beings. Those are the kind of results that our uncomfortable situations could give birth to…

Many people have stories like this. They put someone through something and then they experience it themselves, and somehow they know that they are paying back a debt. It has nothing whatsoever to do with punishment. It’s more like a law of physics. There’s no one punishing you. There is no master planner making sure you get it. There is no vengeance. It is just a principle that you sooner or later start to feel in your bones.

This approach to settling the score is that whenever something bad comes your way, it is always an opportunity for further healing. When things happen to you that you don’t like, you can either open the wound further or you can heal the wound. Instead of getting strongly hooked into thoughts like “I don’t like,” “I don’t want,” “It isn’t fair,” “How could they do this to me?,” “I don’t deserve this, or “They should know better,” it’s possible that you could train yourself so that the natural intelligence becomes stronger than your reactivity.

For most of us most of the time, our emotional reactivity obscures our natural intelligence. But if we become motivated to start contemplating the approach of seeing pain and discomfort as opportunities for healing—for becoming “one-with” and bringing people closer rather than splitting—our intelligence actually will get stronger than our emotional reactivity. If we take those opportunities for healing, the momentum of the intelligence will gradually start to outweigh the momentum of the reactivity…We’re not talking getting rid of the experience of getting hooked. We’re talking about when you get hooked, what do you do next? There’s a choice. The Buddha teaches us that we are always at a crossroads, moment by moment. We have the intelligence to make a choice, so let’s educate ourselves about what the implications of our choices are…We could choose to open the wound further, creating more suffering for ourselves and others, or we can choose to heal the wound.

The question we usually ask ourselves at this crossroads is, What will soothe me in this moment? The habitual response is that what will soothe me is to get what I want, to have my needs met, to get even, to straighten this all out so I come out with what I need. But we have seen what this choice leads to. We need to cultivate that other choice.

The choice I have been talking about doesn’t preclude resolving conflicts where parties have been in the wrong…Unfortunately when we see all this suffering we want fast results. Once again we might act on impulse and out of emotional reactivity, but if we look at the many examples of people trying to heal and settle the score in the intelligent way, we see that it takes time. The results are slow in coming, but from the larger perspective of natural intelligence and openness and warmth, the process is as important as the result. You are creating the future of the planet by how you work with injustice. You may not see it before your eyes immediately, but you are repaying a karmic debt…All you need to know is that the future is wide open and you are about to create it by what you do…

Many spiritual teachings are structured like a tree.

If Reiki were a tree, its trunk would be the meditative teachings of Reiki; hands-on Reiki would be one limb; and the precepts Usui left behind would be Reiki’s living tissue. This was explained in great detail in a previous post: Modern Reiki.

Today we’ll look at Usui’s Reiki precepts again. Since they are the living tissue of the teachings, it’s important to dwell on these simple words again and again. Not only dwell but bring them into full focus in our lives. The translation used here is:

For today only: Do not anger—Do not worry

Be humble

Be honest in your work

Be compassionate to yourself and others

Let me first quote from the previous post:

Without anger, conflicts would be resolved and new ones circumvented. Without worry, fear would end and we wouldn’t exacerbate suffering. Humility is respect and the willingness to include all viewpoints. Honesty; would there be a worldwide financial crisis if there was honesty?

And compassion. Compassion is both a prerequisite and condition of enlightenment. In compassion there’s no separation, no other, no stranger. Compassion is the true democracy! Enlightenment is a state of Oneness. If there’s compassion, there’s understanding and appreciation. Compassion unifies and in that unity we find enlightenment.

Enlightenment isn’t only a spiritual pursuit. There can be enlightenment in government, technology, business, science and social systems.

In delving deeper into these simple words, we have to consider that translation from Japanese, a language based on ideograms,  leads to rich interpretations; aphorisms are pithy and packed with meaning; and such concepts are layered in meaning.

Copyright Usui-Do Eidan

For today only: We mostly understand a day to be 24 hours in the Gregorian calendar which defines our lives. This is fine for what it is.

However, here we’re considering ‘today’ as also ‘this moment,’ ‘this duration,’ ‘this task,’ this activity,’ or even ‘this interaction.’

If you’re serious about your Reiki practice as a spiritual one, a path not only a healing practice or worse a modality, then you understand that it’s lifelong.

A life and a path is made up of moments. Before you’re intimidated by what is asked of you, stop, breathe and take a moment to consider both how fleeting and how endless it is.

You don’t have to master For today only, today.

Do not anger: Anger is an afflictive emotion and we all have it. It’s hurtful to those it’s directed and to person who is angry. It creates suffering for everyone. Sometimes righteous anger is justified, but in the end anger is never skillful or successful.

Anger heats up the mind and it makes mistakes, and anger shuts tight the heart. With and overheated mind and closed heart you’re a danger to yourself and others. Anger can also escalate to rage.

Whereas if a higher feeling state like love is cultivated, when it escalates it leads to bliss!

I feel Usui isn’t only saying don’t let anger prevail, but also heal your anger. This is a major undertaking. Anger is pernicious and insidious. It hides under layers.

Start today with some smaller angers and move onto bigger ones.

Do not worry: Let’s start with the worst case scenario…when worry escalates it becomes fear and/or anxiety. Worry as it is hangs around, niggling away and ruining your outlook as well as inner environment. Worry is powerful in its constancy. It’s a mindset that traps and holds hostage.

It holds hostage your physical, mental and spiritual energy without any purpose. For instance when faced with a dangerous wild animal, fear has a purpose. Escalated fear and ordinary constant worry which are baseless cause more harm than do good.

Worry is a creation of the mind and indicates that your mind is leading you, instead of you leading your mind. The mind is powerful but worry is an unskillful use of its power.

Be humble: Often recommended, seldom understood. Every other avenue that influences daily life tells us to be loud, boastful, self-aggrandizing and to stand out. We cringe at humility. It seems weak and wimpy.

It’s actually a fearless act to be humble because all self-promotion is really a way to hold fear at bay. And it goes further to change your orientation to non-ego. In fact humility is another way to stay in the present, for today only…If you’re not ego driven then the trappings of ego aren’t there either which removes fear and limitations.

Be honest in your work: On one level this is integrity, which starts inside with yourself and extends to all your expressions in your life and the many ways you touch people.

‘Honesty’ in this sense also means consistency, commitment and sincerity, and these apply to your spiritual ‘work.’ Transformation is real. It’s available and occurs, but not without the practitioner partaking daily in the teachings and practices.

And if the ground of your being is transformed from ‘honest’ practice, then the work you have outwardly in the world will be honest as well.

Be compassionate to yourself and others: This is the big one isn’t it?! It also brings the others full circle.

Compassion is a win-win, skillful means always. It’s inherent whenever Reiki is practiced. In fact, Reiki practice teaches about compassion in a visceral way; it’s felt and its qualities are understood.

Compassion leads to understanding which leads to unity. In unity we find a greater degree of enlightenment because we feel “at one.” Feeling one with yourself, others, the environment, the cosmos and the Divine is one quality of enlightenment.

Fortunately with compassion you don’t have to be enlightened to feel and benefit from it, and help others through it.

Compassion blesses everyone equally. It can remain as such or for the dedicated practitioner, compassion can lead to unity states of consciousness, which in turn deepen compassion.

How do you contemplate, engage and learn from the Reiki precepts Usui Sensei placed at the core of his teachings?

Stories are important. Not the ones we tell ourselves to hide in, the dramas we perpetuate. Those are important too, for as Maya Angelou says:

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

In fact telling your story is the genesis of healing and growth. These personal stories collect to form a bigger landscape of the shared human experience. As C.S. Lewis has said:

Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.

We start there, unraveling the pain. This is the backstory. What’s ultimately healing and transformative is when we weave a new story, whether it’s personal or global. The transcendent story is the one that serves us best.

The transcendent story unites us and reveals the deepest mysteries of life.

It’s with this in mind that I’m starting the Reiki Stories Project^SM (RSP). In 15 years of teaching Reiki, time after time it’s practitioners and receivers of Reiki who show and tell the most illuminating aspects of Reiki. Sharing Reiki stories is an amazing learning and validating experience. It deepens this path.

The Reiki Stories Project^SM (RSP) is open to everyone. Please add your stories in comments on this post, or go to contact (top right) and email me. You can share anonymously, or with your initials and location, or full name and location. Share as many as you like over time. Stories will be curated by me and may be lightly edited.

Your Reiki story will be held in sacredness.

We begin with two stories from my own student practitioners. This first one is from someone who has been practicing Reiki for quite some time. I was recently interviewed and it prompted this sharing. Again, when we share and talk new associations are formed and we’re all elevated.

Pamir, your answers in that interview are beautiful and timeless. I even feel they are coming from your higher self. The most important part for me is that of shifts. I experienced a shift. I always loved everything around me and would even secretly talk to plants and animals. But I experienced a shift that came from great suffering to see my path more clearly (my desire to help people). So, my love and compassion was always there, but the decision to do something about it came later.

“It’s the emergence of all that you are, instead of only facets of a personality.” (From the interview.) This shift also brought an awakening to discover who I am and my ‘purpose.’ Of course, these realizations are still in progress since like you said, “I’m still awakening.”

My mom has been sick lately and I have been worried for her since she won’t go to the doctor or even admit she doesn’t feel good. Last night I took all my quartz and let myself be guided by them. I had never done anything with them but just have them in my room beside the picture of Paramahansa Yogananda.

I first filled a pot with water and put salt and Reiki’d it, then placed a quartz inside, then cleansed it with Jakikiri Joka-ho (a method for purifying inanimate objects). This I did with each of the stones. Then I placed them in a circle and put a card with my mom’s name and location and sent distant Reiki (crystals aren’t classically involved with Reiki). Finally, I placed the card under the biggest quartz which I feel was the one guiding me through it.

My mom called me this morning and said “I didn’t want to scare you but I have been very sick lately and today I simply woke up feeling healthy and strong.” All the pain she had disappeared and the vomiting stopped. Also, in a very odd way, $2,500 was sent to her today (and we really needed the money).

Like always, I want to thank you for being the tree for so many us who need you,

Namaste

This next one is a very recent excerpt from the 21-day report after Reiki Training I have in place to serve as a vehicle of accountability (both ways), and to further mentor my practitioners. What’s noteworthy about it is that even after a lifetime of habits and mental patterns, a mere 21 days of Reiki practice can have such solid benefits:

21 days looks like too little time, when you already have lived more than 16,000 previous days during your entire life. You can ask yourself how much more can 0.13 % of your existence do for you? Maybe nothing, but perhaps there was already a light switch waiting on the wall, and then the 21 days came as a space to do nothing else but turn it on.

To tell you the truth Reiki was not something that I was looking forward to practice before a couple of month ago. For the last couple of years I was too busy keeping myself entertained in a way not to see the falling bricks from the walls of my home. But finally the walls gave way to gravity, leaving me in the middle of what used to be my securities…now in ruins. That’s when I started feeling the need to clean up and rebuild and I started looking at one of the only things that was still standing there: Myself. Then, Reiki came to me.

When I first started the twenty minute meditations, my whole being jumped into it with great joy, it was something longtime missed and well needed, mostly for my never silent mind. I haven’t stop doing it, sometimes once, sometimes twice a day, and not precisely because I am doing it so well, but because of the opposite…With the hope of maybe one day being able to find the bottom that shuts down all the thoughts from my head, allowing the light to fill up the empty spaces.

I practice both Hikari no Kokyu-ho at night and Gassho Kokyu-ho in the morning (two Reiki-specific meditations taught in Level I). The first one opens me to the universe, the second one centers me into myself. In spite of the constant escape attempts from my mind, both have been slowly making things change around me. I can see the difference, I feel a lot lighter, I don’t worry that much, I don’t find myself immersed in the foggy cloud of day dreaming as much as I did before.

I started to visit some situations in my past, seeing them with other eyes and better understanding. Now I am more able to forgive myself and I am not letting others fill me up with guilt. I am finding great joy in things that I am rediscovering such as dancing.

When I first applied Reiki Distant Healing about fifteen years ago (RDH–I specify because it’s different from other nonlocal, i.e., distant methods), I realized that it was a very deep state of true meditation. By that I mean a meditative state that is not for lowering blood pressure or stress-relief, but a spiritually charged space of connecting to the Reality which upholds our physical existence.

Many systems of spiritual meditative practice give a model of the various stages of meditation and self-realization. It’s useful to look at other systems sometimes to bring meaning to Reiki.

I’d like to use a model given in Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism by John Powers as a way to draw some parallels. All aspects of Reiki are relevant here, but RDH illustrates the parallels best.

We’ll look at RDH from the viewpoint of a Reiki practitioner. For the practitioner, regular practice of RDH:

• opens the spiritual heart by first healing the emotional heart
• infuses with a great dose of spiritual energy
• boosts intuition and subtle perceptions
• helps you experience universal compassion seen in enlightened ones
• draws you closer together to people and communities
• brings the joy of spiritual fulfillment

Compassion is a stable emotion. The emotional energy of compassion is selfless and focused. It has equanimity, and motivates the intent of the practitioner to utilize one’s resources to help others. Ordinary emotional energy can be self-indulgent, scattered, attached, perturbed and unstable. It’s difficult to help oneself with such an emotional makeup, let alone others.

Compassion can be seen as the sincere heart-desire to soothe the suffering of others. Present in this wish is to alleviate not only their present unease, but the root causes of their discomfort. First is the recognition that all beings have the capacity for compassion. Intention and motivation are also crucial. The best outcome is possible by keeping your intentions alive and making them pure, noble and vast. It may seem impossible to help countless others, but once you start, and with the unique ability of RDH, your intention becomes true.

RDH is designed for the benefit of others, but simultaneously you, the conduit, receive untold gifts from the regularity of its practice.

Compassion cultivated by the transformation of ordinary emotional energy is known as ’skillful means,’ for it enables the practitioner to skillfully use their mind, wisdom, love and energy for the benefit of others as well as their own spiritual development.

Bodhisattva of Compassion

The primary model of altruistic intention is the Bodhisattva.

Speaking of the Bodhisattva, Powers says,

The Sanskrit term literally means ‘enlightenment (bodhi) being (sattva),’ and it indicates…someone…progressing toward the state of enlightenment of a buddha….Bodhisattvas…are motivated by universal compassion, and they seek the ultimate goal of buddhahood in order to be of service to others….At the beginning of the bodhisattva path, they realize that their present capacities are limited and that they are unable to even prevent their own sufferings.

How true of Reiki. We come to Shoden (Reiki I), take responsibility for our own welfare, begin healing with the power of love (loving-kindness as a quality of compassion), develop spiritually, and move to Okuden (Reiki II) as a way to heal deeper, establish an abiding spirituality and increase our capacities. This includes RDH.

Powers continues that “a bodhisattva begins a training program intended to culminate in the enlightenment of a buddha.”

Among the good qualities generated by this training he lists six

perfections:

1) generosity
2) ethics
3) patience
4) effort
5) concentration, and
6) wisdom

These constitute the core of the enlightened personality of the buddha.

It’s uncanny how easy it is to put a Reiki spin on these:

1) Generosity is inherent in Reiki since the vital energy you access through its practice is so abundantly available, enriching you and those with whom you share it.

Along with this energy comes wisdom, insight, knowledge, peace, healing, compassion and light. These attributes are unlimitedly available. This prime generosity is expanded at the local, global and universal levels many times with RDH, and it creates a domino effect of generosity.

2) Ethics, i.e., the Reiki Precepts. Every spiritual system has these, for as you become empowered a strong foundation is crucial. Usui Sensei set forth these five points:

For today only:

Do not anger
Do not worry
Be humble
Be honest in your work
Be compassionate to yourself and others

“For today only” indicates that you do the best you can, for the precepts are a tall order, despite their simplicity. However, it also indicates that you practice everyday to fulfill this tall order.

Beyond ethics, Usui’s precepts are actual teachings, the underpinning of the system of Reiki. It’s because the ethical challenge is demanding that other techniques are included (such as RDH) to help the practitioner actually live the precepts.

The ethics of RDH itself come into play too. RDH is a process of Oneness with the receiver or target. It’s an extension of a personal spiritual practice and the integrity gained there forms the foundation of providing healing energy in this way. The intention is the highest good of the person. Results are surrendered, together with any worries about effectiveness.

3) Patience is the quality which helps you process each level of training before moving on; having equanimity in the face of unchanging symptoms; and doubting not the power of Reiki. We live in a very results-oriented society, yet spiritual growth and healing are much more open-ended and organic.

This means that patience really becomes the wisdom to follow the energy and drop the need to achieve certain results. While intentions support spiritual and healing work, having a black and white agenda of results is detrimental.

You never know where growth or healing is going to show up. Being patient and wise enough to allow the energy to bring the best-fitting gift is a peaceful approach, rather than forcing a result or limiting what is available with a narrow and restless agenda.

4) Effort means to use Reiki as a practice and not just another tool. Spiritual teachings are really only effective when practiced and applied. It’s the depth of daily practice which ensures that you have the ability to respond in the spur of the moment with the greatest effectiveness.

Effort means to continually refine one’s understanding and application of Reiki. Building on what you have been taught by your teacher is the heart of your practice.

5) Concentration in Reiki is the quality of meditating on the energy as you apply it. This ensures non-interference of ego or distractions. It also enhances the experience of Reiki both for receiver and giver. (Yes, Reiki flows all by itself, but we hold an intention and meditation is concentrated mind.) In RDH concentration is even more important since you’re dealing with the formless (etheric).

6) Wisdom is the quality which completes love and without which we are lopsided. Universal Mind is close during RDH and gives your mind the opportunity to be informed by wisdom that you can then carry into our lives and the world.

These apply to the whole of Reiki, but the focus here has been Reiki Distant Healing.

This foundational training offers specific techniques for tapping into spiritual and healing consciousness and energy. Reiki fosters spiritual evolution, bodily and mental/emotional health; has uses for food, water, environment, relationships and work. Reiki holistically augments care giving, enhanced learning, social projects, global thinking, animal and pet care.

Shoden / Level I Reiki Training at Florida Atlantic University’s Christine E. Lynn’s College of Nursing, Boca Raton, Florida

Sat Nov 1, 12 Noon-6:30
Sun Nov 2, 10-5:30 

Presented by Pamir Kiciman, BA, RM, CHt

Training Summary

Hikari no Kokyu-ho: method for breathing in Light
Gassho Kokyu-ho: method for breathing Light through hands
Kenyoku-ho: method for personal energy cleansing
Self-Treatment / Reiki for Others
Additional uses: pets, plants, home, work; mental, emotional, spiritual healing
Nentatsu-ho: method for healing the subconscious
Jakikiri Joka-ho: method for purifying the energy in objects

and much more…

Prepaid reservations required, space is limited
Registration closes October 30
Everyone must be registered by then

954-661-HAND (4263) or info{at}reikihelp{dot}com for details

What an amazing experience this training has been for me. Divine timing for sure. You are a true teacher and it is so refreshing. Love and Light to you Pamir, and with gratitude from my heart.

–L.G., Fort Lauderdale, Fla

Related:
Anatomy of a Reiki Training: A poetic rendering in text and slideshow.

Shoden / Level I Reiki Training

at Florida Atlantic University’s

Christine E. Lynn’s College of Nursing,

Boca Raton, Florida

2-Day Training

Saturday, Sept 20 & Sunday, Sept 21
10 AM—5 PM

College of Nursing room 116

Presented by Pamir Kiciman, BA, RM, CHt

This foundational training offers specific techniques for tapping into spiritual and healing consciousness and energy. Reiki fosters spiritual evolution, bodily and mental/emotional health; has uses for food, water, environment, relationships and work. Reiki holistically augments care giving, enhanced learning, social projects, global thinking, animal and pet care.

Training Summary

• Hikari no Kokyu-ho: method for breathing in Light
• Gassho Kokyu-ho: method for breathing Light through hands
• Kenyoku-ho: method for personal energy cleansing
• Self-Treatment / Reiki for Others
• Additional uses: pets, plants, home, work; mental, emotional, spiritual healing
• Nentatsu-ho: method for healing the subconscious
• Jakikiri Joka-ho: method for purifying the energy in objects

and much more…

Prepaid reservations required, space is limited
Registration closes one week prior to training
Everyone must be registered by then

954-661-HAND (4263) or info{at}reikihelp{dot}com for details

Related:
Anatomy of a Reiki Training: A poetic rendering in text and slideshow.

The founder of Reiki, Mikao Usui (Usui Sensei) was born on August 15, 1865 in the village of Taniai (now called Miyama cho) in the Yamagata county of Gifu Prefecture, in Japan. There are four influences that went into his Reiki teachings: Buddhism, Shintoism, Martial Arts, and Shugendo (mountain asceticism) Here, we’ll briefly look at his martial arts training.

Usui’s family was hatamoto samurai. The hatamoto were the shogun’s personal guard. The Usui family crest, also known as the Chiba crest, is a design that is a circle with a dot at the top. The circle is the universe, and the dot represents the North Star. The North Star is a polestar, it never moves, is ever constant, while life moves around it.

Three Japanese budo masters were contemporaries of Usui Sensei. Gichin Funakoshi founded Karate. Jigoro Kano started judo. Morihei Ueshiba created Aikido a little later on. Mikao Usui was born a Tendai Buddhist and studied in a Tendai monastery as a young child. At age 12 he began the practice of a martial art known as aiki jutsu, made popular by Takeda Sokaku who was Ueshiba’s teacher. This form included harmonizing with Ki, making it possible to experience calmness, concentration, willpower and physical fitness. He also studied yagyu ryu, and it’s interesting that this tradition includes both life-giving and -taking techniques.

About two years ago I had come across a Samurai’s song. It was impressive and thought-provoking. Let me share it here and we’ll look at some ideas that emerge.

A Warrior’s Creed

I have no parents
I make the heaven and earth my parents

I have no home
I make awareness my home

I have no life and death
I make the tides of breathing my life and death

I have no divine powers
I make honesty my divine power

I have no means
I make understanding my means

I have no secrets
I make my character my secret

I have no body
I make endurance my body

I have no eyes
I make the flash of lightening my eyes

I have no ears
I make sensibility my ears

I have no limbs
I make promptness my limbs

I have no strategy
I make “unshadowed by thought” my strategy.

I have no design
I make “seizing opportunity by the forelock” my design

I have no miracles
I make right action my miracle

I have no principles
I make adaptability to all circumstances my principle

I have no tactics
I make emptiness and fullness my tactics

I have no talent
I make ready wit my talent

I have no friends
I make my mind my friend

I have no enemy
I make carelessness my enemy

I have no armor
I make benevolence and righteousness my armor

I have no castle
I make immovable mind my castle

I have no sword
I make absence of self my sword

–Anonymous Samurai, 14th century

Admittedly it’s a little austere and minimalist. This has advantages, however. Many times, there’s nothing quite like a bare bones view to gain clarity and hone in on essentials. Let’s break it down.

• In Reiki we work very closely with heaven and earth in the form of Earth and Celestial Ki.
• Uncluttered awareness in the moment is key.
• Understanding is an enhancer of Reiki practice, whether it’s better results with techniques, or with people. When Reiki is practiced or shared with understanding, its power deepens.
• Reiki constantly gives us ample opportunities to improve our character.
• Quieting the busy mind is a core practice that rewards in multiple ways.
• Right thought, right speech, right action are built-in Reiki ethics.
• Being the bending but not breaking bamboo is the adaptability Reiki brings us.
• Knowing when to be empty and when to be full is a skill Reiki helps us develop.
• Befriending ourself is where healing begins.
• Being careful is a prime example of being full. Full of care.
• Reiki is the way of compassion, which includes benevolence.
• Immovable mind is the beginning and end of meditation.
• Absence of self in the Self is the way of peace and enlightenment.